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I made this Shanghai scallion flatbread this afternoon and it is really good but if you should endeavor to make it, I have 2 warnings:

1. whatever you think is "medium heat" when you're cooking it is too high. No, lower than that. Or don't go the full 12 minutes recommended, but I think that might be harder to gauge.

2. be careful when flipping it over! Remember that sesame seeds will pop in hot oil and things will spatter, so really and truly, be careful!

Otherwise, it's delicious, A++ will make again. On lower heat next time. The only thing I did differently was use toasted sesame oil on the inside before I put the scallions on. Also, I think it could hold more than 1/2 cup of chopped scallions, but that is just me. Oh, and I used five spice powder instead of ground Sichuan peppercorns because I don't like that much heat and so I do not actually have Sichuan peppercorns in the house. Anyway, I did it all by hand and it was easy enough. I can't recommend a Danish dough whisk enough if you enjoy making bread and don't have a stand mixer.

I had big plans to also make blood orange gelato - blood oranges are in season right now and on sale! but the ones I got are like, bruised to hell, so that is probably why the sale price - but I don't have room in the freezer for it. Bah. Pre-made chicken tenders were also on sale and I bought them to make for lunch this week and they are taking up a lot of space (there are only about 12 in the bag but the bag is enormous. so annoying! I suppose I could rebag them in something less full of air. Hmm...). Anyway, I am contemplating zesting and juicing the oranges and freezing that, but again, space is at a premium in there. One day I will have a full-size fridge. or a chest freezer. Either way. and I will be so happy.

Soon, I will take the rack of babyback ribs I bought this week (not on sale alas) and give them a dry rub before they go back into the fridge overnight to be roasted low and slow tomorrow. And in the morning, before I have to devote 4 hours of oven-time to the ribs, I plan to make pecan shortbread because I still have like 2 lbs of pecans from my Christmas candied pecans project. It's an Ina Garten recipe, so I anticipate it will be good! And I will eat a few of them for breakfast each morning next week.

And after reblogging this post, I have also been contemplating making gyoza for Easter since I'll have a 4-day weekend and could do it in stages, though I have never done it and don't know how to pleat them so I'm going to have to watch some videos - any recs for that? I'll also try to clear out some space in the freezer to freeze some for later. *g* But they look so good! I do love a dumpling.

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Current Mood: satisfied
Current Music: Mrs Robinson - Simon & Garfunkel

pauraque

The other week we had a bunch of above-freezing days and made quite a bit of headway in melting the snow. There were even places where you could see the ground! At one point I was out walking and I wasn't even wearing a coat, and some guy walking past me who was certainly old enough to know better opened his arms expansively and announced in glee, "It's finally here!!" I just smiled and didn't disillusion him.

Shortly afterward, the temperatures plummeted back down to the teens Fahrenheit (single digits below zero C) and stayed there, and yesterday we got several inches of snow, so the ground is well covered again.

The birds, however, are certainly aware that winter will end eventually, and are continuing their preparations. The year-round residents are doing more singing and less quiet foraging, and the early migrators are starting to roll in. I've heard flocks of Canada Geese honking over the neighborhood and seen Turkey Vultures wheeling and teetering through the sky. (In the dead of winter we only see Black Vultures, which can find carrion by sight; Turkey Vultures need to smell it, so below-freezing temperatures are a problem for them.) Walking around town I saw the Common Grackles are back, and I heard the year's first Red-winged Blackbird call from the muddy fields near the grocery store. I spotted a Song Sparrow quietly hanging out with our usual Dark-eyed Junco group in the yard (looking a bit underdressed in his casual stripes next to the juncos' tuxedos), and the next day he was singing.

A lot of people associate American Robins with spring, but not all individuals migrate. Even in the coldest part of the winter I still see them occasionally out in the woods. But the ones who do migrate are definitely on their way in, and before it started snowing again there were even enough open lawns in the neighborhood for them to forage there. I always find it funny how they spread out equally spaced when they forage, almost in a grid.

Since my last bird update I also added Pine Siskin and European Starling to my year list. They've been around, I just hadn't seen them since New Year. Pine Siskins should actually be heading out soon, as they breed further north, in Canada. I love their buzzy little upward zipper call.

So that's 46 birds for my 2026 list so far. Soon the main migration wave will hit and it'll fill up faster!

delphi

Continuing the queer short film recs, thanks to

muscle_wizard sharing this one in my last post:

Watch on YouTube

An older woman with a crush on someone in her circle approaches her younger co-worker for advice on how to ask out another woman for the first time. This really got me—charming and moving at the same time.

musesfool

I was shocked and saddened when

devildoll just texted me this: Nicholas Brendon, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Star, Dies at 54. I knew he had troubles, but also thought he had time to work them out. He's a year younger than me!

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Current Mood: shocked
Current Music: then i hide until it goes away

pauraque

The Ainu are an indigenous people native to northern Japan and nearby parts of Russia. Kayano Shigeru (1926-2006) was a leading activist for Ainu rights in Japan, and eventually became the first Ainu member of the Japanese legislature. But his career in the Diet came after the publication of this book, which mixes memoir, history, and ethnography.

Kayano relates what he knows of his people's oppression in the 19th century, when the Japanese government pushed many Ainu groups onto marginal land and conscripted people for forced labor at minimal pay. This leads into his own childhood, when his family's generational poverty was exacerbated by his father's alcoholism. As a young man Kayano came to feel ashamed of being Ainu, culminating in a demeaning job at an Ainu-themed attraction, performing sacred dances five times a day for gawking tourists.

But the tourists' ignorant questions sparked Kayano's realization that there should be a real Ainu museum curated by actual Ainu people and fostering respect for their culture. He was inspired to travel the Ainu lands collecting one traditional tool or piece of clothing at a time (and always paying the people who made them) and eventually succeeded in opening the museum and renewing his own sense of pride in his heritage.

This short book highlights important issues, but I have to be honest—I found the presentation pretty dry. Maybe it's partly the translation? I also noticed that Ainu women weren't given much attention; Kayano has a wife, but her only character trait shown in the book is "supportive of her husband". But I'd say the book is still a good resource on a significant figure in global indigenous rights.

(As an aside: This book was on my TBR list for at least 15 years. This year I'm really trying to either read some of the long-time lingerers or admit I'm not going to read them, so having read this is a great success for me!)

musesfool

I have watched some TV!

Shrinking: ( spoilers )

Abbott Elementary: ( spoilers )

The Pitt: ( spoilers )

Here is a cool video interview with Alexandra Metz, who plays Garcia. I don't think there are any spoilers past earlier s2 episodes.

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Current Mood: enthralled
Current Music: Mulholland Drive - Gaslight Anthem

delphi

Dandelion is a very sweet short film starring Ava Lalezarzadeh as Margaret, a queer teen in the foster care system in the 1970s, and Vic Michaelis as Joyce, the volunteer trying to find her a new placement after she's kicked out of convent school. The short's a lovely standalone, but I was really happy to hear it's being made into a full-length movie!

Watch on YouTube

thawrecka

Life is so short. I want to say that I don't know what to say, but I do. I was very intensely into LJRP/DWRP in my 20s; at a time when other people were doing uni and postgrad and forming friendships with people at uni, I was making RP friends. I slowly drifted away from a lot of people, without even meaning to, because life happens, but they were present for a very important, very intense part of my life and I kept meaning to reach out and get to know them again. And then someone dies, and I realise it's too late. A strange, wistful feeling. I think I'm crying more because people I love are grieving than anything else, because I didn't know AJ very well anymore, but really, what a loss.

If there's any upside, it's that this motivated everyone to get back in touch. We are all so much older than we used to be, and some people we still can't find, but it's so nice to get back in touch.

Watched:

I'm still deep into the Prince of Tennis marathon. I remembered nothing of this junior selection camp filler arc until I got to the point where they were all like, wow, Sengoku got shredded!!! Why is that the thing I remember? The boxing style tennis is hilarious, sorry to say. Also, Samada telling Atobe he doesn't care about Atobe's obsession with Tezuka and then Dan faithfully reporting this to Tezuka is hilarious.

Though Tezuka slapping Ryoma to the ground just because Ryoma wants to play a tennis game Tezuka didn't sanction is um serious values dissonance moment, because I think this makes Tezuka look shitty and the anime does not.

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isis

What I've recently finished reading:

Blood over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang. I'm a sucker for technology-infused magic, and I really liked the sort of computer-programming-magic here; in general the worldbuilding reminded me a bit of the TV show Arcane, which of course has its "magitech", but the main similarity is the elite vs the underclass (who they exploit), and the dark truths behind the marvels of the city. However, the characters are one-dimensional, with stereotypical views that either clearly cast them as the villains or that make it obvious the narrative will be about their realizations that change their views. I will say, though, that I was (pleasantly) surprised by the ending, as I applaud the writer for choosing the more realistic and interesting path over what you might expect from YA.

Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes by Leah Litman, who is a law professor and co-host of the podcast Strict Scrutiny, which I've never listened to, but I have heard her on NPR and other people's podcasts. I agree with her main thesis, that the Court has gone off the rails by picking and choosing their "legal principles" by whether or not they agree (ideologically) with the outcome that will result, which frankly stinks. It's well-researched, with lots of cites and notes. However, each of the five chapters is presented using the conceit of a particular show or movie, and as I was only familiar with most of them through osmosis, this didn't really work for me and sometimes seemed overly pop-culture-cutesy. (Like, Barbie - the movie, not the toy - is used as the lens to examine overturning Roe vs. Wade; Game of Thrones tells us that Winter Is Coming For Voting Rights; Mean Girls don't want to sit with LGBTQ people.) For an old Gen-X-er like me it seems like unnecessary metaphor, but maybe it will land better with people who want more glitz and meme in their nonfiction...but in that case, maybe a relatively dense book about law is not what they will be reading? I also will gripe about the editing, which seems particularly poor in the last chapter where Litman misspelled Ronald Reagan's surname and gave the same Neil Gorsuch quote twice within a few paragraphs.

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pauraque

This Flash game by Argentine developer Daniel Benmergui presents a scene with a woman in a rowboat looking up at a man sitting on the moon. As the player you can snap photos of different portions of the scene and move them around, leading to different resolutions of the scenario.

*Is this some sort of romantic game that I'm too aro to understand?*

I do remember this game making the rounds in the late 2000s and being held up as evidence on the pro side of the burgeoning "can video games be art?" debate. Personally I have always found this debate tedious and misguided, proving nothing except that "art" is a poorly defined term which is used to arbitrarily judge elements of culture as worthy or unworthy. So that's probably why I never clicked any of the links to I Wish I Were the Moon.

Coming to it now, my strongest impression is that it doesn't demonstrate anything about art, but it does demonstrate (yet again) that I am extremely aromantic. The game is supposed to be a representation of a love triangle; I do know that. But it makes my brain do the thing that it's been doing my entire life, which is to interpret romantic scenarios that I don't understand as anything other than what they are intended to be. (My brain does this especially with songs, which tend to be worded vaguely enough that it's easy to do. This breakup song could be about a friendship turning sour! This passionate love ballad could be about any kind of love and it doesn't even have to be about a person! It could be about a city or a fandom or a celestial body!!)

So what is the moon in this game? It's something the man loves which is separating him from the woman in the rowboat. Who says it has to be a person? It could be his career or his faith or his family or just about anything! I guess you could argue that one of the essential qualities of art is that it's open to interpretation, but let's not and say we did.

The 2008 version of I Wish I Were the Moon is playable in a Flash emulator here. In 2022 the developer also offered a free remaster on his itch.io page here, but I have to say I think it lacks some of the charm of the original.

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delphi

Fandom 50 #4

Continuing my list of fifty Canadian songs I love from the past fifty years, how could I kick off the '80s and not go for some pulpy lesbian new wave?

High School Confidential by Rough Trade

Watch on YouTube